The Rise & Fall of WCW

Monday Night Mayhem DVD Review
The Rise And Fall Of WCW”
Produced By World Wrestling Entertainment
Written By: “Wild” Bill Brown

****

Content: 8.5

Decades of wrestling history originating from the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States are once again retold to the wrestling world in this latest DVD release by World Wrestling Entertainment. From the starting points of the promotion by Jim Crockett Sr. in the early 1930’s, to his son (Jim Jr.), & then Ted Turner, this three-disc set of how it all started & ended (with World Championship Wrestling) is another interesting look at wrestling history. In this version, we get some very interesting sides of things from a decent panel, as well as some older comments from past interviews, in regards to their thoughts on World Championship Wrestling & all the controversy within the company. We go from the great days of wrestling through handshakes & trust and ended with all kinds of backstabbing & frustration. This is your chance to hear the latest stories many years later as to why & how World Championship Wrestling thrived, but then ended in a huge swirl of controversy. This is your look through the story of WCW, as well as viewing bonus features & twenty selected matches.

****

Audio/Video: 9.5

Incredible Dolby Surround sound & music inserts, combined with well heard panelists & solid camera work, the production values of WWE Home Video is always beyond outstanding. All the matches selected were from the WCW library, and the WWE makes the most out of preserving the production & displaying solid video from their purchased assets. Even the older stuff from the ’70’s & ’80’s are clipped & presented in clean crisp video.

****

Bonus Features: 8.0

These are at the end of disc one after the story of WCW is told. You will get the following extras which are not much, but somewhat interesting. There is nothing to really brag about in these choices.

The first disc tells the story starting from 1933 & Jim Crockett Sr.’s style of promoting professional events of all types. We are guided through the Mid- Atlantic days, Georgia, & Vince’s takeover which he called the perfect “1-2 Punch.” Then we see the acquisitions of Jim Crockett Jr. gobbling up many of the NWA territories & the UWF. Crockett was all about making money, all about spending money, & then realized in 1988 that he all of the sudden millions behind in his own money & had to sell the company. But within this we are told about the birth of TBS & Ted Turner’s fondness for professional wrestling, and how Vince McMahon and himself joined & ended their relationship on the network. Many things are dated very accurately, but once again this is where something like this is so big & can be talked about for hours, but by twenty-five minutes in we are past how Starrcade’s was changing the business & all the other key elements of the NWA, and we are instead discussing Ted Turners WCW.

In the beginning from what was NWA to now WCW, the group was more-or-less looked at as changing from a Carolina’s group to a Global promotion. The players in the group were great, but the leadership was undoubtedly terrible. We are given the rundown of WCW presidents & bookers and what each one brought to the table, but ultimately shown how each one failed at survival. The list seemed endless of failures & departures, until finally Eric Bischoff was shockingly given his very own opportunity to go to war as the company’s head. With the acquisitions of Hulk Hogan & other big name stars, as well as running head-to-head on Monday nights, this began the turnaround, and gave the Ted Turner owned company a huge lead over their once superior competitors. Through all the sellouts/rises in revenues, many mistakes, & changes behind-the-scenes were being made which started to unsteady the now tall WCW structure. So through all the surprises, the cruiserweights, live Monday Nitro’s, Bill Goldberg, & celebrity appearances, we now have bigger contracts, more ego, Vince Russo, & wrestlers being held back from upward mobility. At this point, we are now focused in on the bad things there were happening like Kevin Nash ruining the streak, Jay Leno, David Arquette, a Pay-Per-View event running over its time limit, & a one finger World Title change in front of nearly 40,000 pissed-off wrestling fans. Hulk Hogan’s last WCW appearance was also shown, as Vince Russo & Jeff Jarrett double-crossed the World Champion (Hulk Hogan) in front of a live paying audience. Time Warner at this point was trying to wash their hands of professional wrestling, and these types of things going on & substantial millions of dollars in the red ultimately led to the sale of this company…and to none other than Vincent Kennedy McMahon. To say all this is portrayed fairly is a huge misconception, because it never ever could be in a quick two-hour rundown. There are also plenty of panelists, but we all could only wish there could have been more of these people for discussion. Selected for this DVD release to tell their stories are the following:

The matches are fantastic towards the start of the DVD, but towards the end of the WCW promotion you may be scratching your head as to why they would select the choices they have made for these two remaining discs.

This was the last match on the DVD…This one, a Nitro match. While decent, plenty of fans (including myself) will probably not understand why this one was chosen. Seriously, there are hundreds of other matches we all wish we could have seen here.

****

The Verdict:

While a great story, certainly not the most accurate. There are some strong points made & interesting comments heard, but if you are looking for the entire version of what happened through all those years, you’re just never going to get it with the WWE owning the assets of the company. This was enjoyable, yet very frustrating to watch, but that kind of sums up the WCW story & the way it really was for the most part anyways.

****

Overall Recommendation:

It was the biggest story in the history of wrestling. It was the end of the wrestling war after many decades of battle. Here is the story of the group that fought up & out until the year 2001. You owe it to yourself to find out as much as you can about wrestling history, and “The Rise And Fall Of WCW” by World Wrestling Entertainment will certainly be a great watch for any viewer out there. Despite much incompleteness, due to the nature of this particular topic, these three DVD’s/discs are strongly recommended.

****

Final Thoughts:

“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair comes to mind as the only man besides the Crockett’s, who were there from the early stages right through the very end, and being involved in this project was a major plus. Eric Bischoff not being specifically interviewed with newer material this time around takes away from this story, but that is in no way any fault of the WWE, as Eric was unwilling to participate & share any of his stories for us…and rightfully so. A few other names perhaps should have been interviewed for comments I suppose, but I guess we can’t get everything we want.